SINGAPORE: The founder of alternative news site Wake Up Singapore (WUSG) and a woman who sent the site text messages fabricating an account of a miscarriage at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) were fined by a court on Monday (Aug 26).
Ma Su Nandar Htwe, a 28-year-old Myanmar national and Singapore permanent resident, was fined S$10,000 (US$7,670).
The founder and administrator of WUSG, 27-year-old Singaporean Ariffin Iskandar Sha Ali Akbar, was fined S$8,000.
The pair pleaded guilty to one count each of criminal defamation.
The woman had submitted the fake story as she wanted “drama” as she was bored, court documents stated.
When the ruse was uncovered, the woman told the WUSG founder that she sent him “things in the heat of the moment because (she) was also agonising over the loss of a previous miscarriage which was handled by KKH”.
This turned out to be also a lie.
THE CASE
The woman had sent the fake story to WUSG in messages to its Instagram account on Mar 21, 2022.
In her account, she said she tested positive for COVID-19 in February 2022 when she was 20 weeks pregnant.
She said she visited multiple hospitals to seek treatment for abdominal pains and COVID-19 symptoms, but said she was turned away and directed to go to KKH.
She claimed that she arrived at KKH at 2pm that day and bled from her private parts at about 5pm.
She claimed she was only seen by a doctor at around 6pm, who told her: “No need ultrasound, the baby is probably dead, this is too much bleeding.”
The woman claimed in her story that she “expelled out” her baby on the hospital bed and lost consciousness.
When she came to, she claimed she asked for the baby’s body to give it a proper burial but was told by the hospital that the foetus “had been disposed of as medical waste”.
The court heard that the story was a fabrication except for the fact that the woman was pregnant when she visited KKH on Feb 28, 2022, to seek treatment for COVID-19 and abdominal pains.
She was discharged that same day in good health and delivered her baby safely in July 2022.
The woman intended for WUSG to publish her untrue story to harm KKH’s reputation. She later admitted doing this because “she wanted drama as she was bored”.
WUSG’S RESPONSE
After receiving the woman’s messages, Ariffin, who was the sole operator of WUSG at the time, responded that same day asking for medical documents to support her account.
The woman sent him a scanned copy of a medical receipt from KKH dated Feb 28, 2022.
Ariffin sent an email to KKH on Mar 23, 2022, saying WUSG intended to run the story and asking if the hospital wished to respond.
Without waiting for a response, Ariffin published the fabricated story that same day on WUSG’s website as well as its Instagram and Facebook pages.
The article was titled: “‘The baby is probably dead’ – Woman shares a harrowing account of her miscarriage at KKH A&E”.
After this was published, the story was picked up and published by other local news outlets.
KKH’S ACTIONS
KKH performed internal investigations and deduced that the patient in question was Ma Su Nandar Htwe, but noted major discrepancies between her account and what was documented in their medical records.
A senior manager with KKH’s Office of Patient Experience called Ma Su Nandar Htwe on Mar 24, 2022.
Ma Su Nandar Htwe said her legal team had advised her not to speak about this and said her team would reach out to KKH soon.
She ignored four calls from the KKH manager and later sent her an email to stop “bombarding” her with calls.
In another email, Ma Su Nandar Htwe said she did not care what KKH did in relation to her case, but that she did not wish to communicate with KKH any further.
She also scolded KKH for the “lack of compassion” amongst their staff and stood by her account, saying: “What happened to me has happened and I shared my account exactly as how I remembered.”
WHAT ARIFFIN DID
Meanwhile, Ariffin remained in contact with Ma Su Nandar Htwe. After KKH lodged a police report on Mar 25, 2022, he removed the story from WUSG and its platforms before asking Ma Su Nandar Htwe if everything was “okay”.
She admitted to him that the account was untrue and asked him to remove the story and all related posts.
She said: “I sent you things in the heat of the moment because I was also agonising over the loss of a previous miscarriage which was handled by KKH.”
However, this was also investigated and found to be another fabrication.
After realising that the story was fake, Ariffin emailed KKH privately and apologised for publishing the story.
He asked to be put in touch with the investigation officer handling the police report lodged by KKH and published a retraction of the story, issuing an apology to KKH.
That same day, Ma Su Nandar Htwe visited the Geylang Neighbourhood Police Centre to ask how she could get in touch with the investigation officer handling the case and was told she would be contacted.
Ariffin published another article on WUSG on Mar 26, 2022, setting out the timeline of events, explaining the deception and issuing an apology.
The Ministry of Health handed WUSG a Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act correction direction over the story on Mar 27, 2022.
Ariffin complied with the correction direction, posting correction notices on WUSG’s pages.
The penalties for criminal defamation are a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both.
